press and politics

1
press and politics

• shaping the news
• Bias?

2
key focus

• mutual dependence government/politicians and
  media
• how politicians manage news
• how changing media technology and economics
  influence news coverage

3
mutual dependence

• Media power, need
• agenda setting define key issues
• priming focus on one issue and not others
• framing how issues are defined.
• media need for information
• Politicians power, need

4
the news process

• no media agenda
• reliance on sources, power of sources
• need to be interesting drama in the news,
  personalized news
• competition

5
news management by politicians

• high level of success in managing the news (Bush
  in 1992)
• sources knowledgeable, accessible, friendly
  (Kennedy v. Nixon in 1960)
• Bennett government officials as sources
  indexing
• Dorman news management, Persian Gulf

6
wooing the media

• F.D. Roosevelt
• J.F. Kennedy
• Insider Syndrome

7
other management strategies

• press briefings
• media events
• go directly to public
• image making theme/line of the day
• accessibility
• visuals

8
news all the time

• rise of cable TV
• news-all-the-time 24/7 news
• economics of news-all-the-time (less reporting,
  more commenting)
• ratings, non-news

9
reporting the Clinton scandal

• no gatekeepers
• commentary rather than fact
• second-hand sources
• anonymous sources
• just one anonymous source
• echo effect
• repeating rumors
• TV unedited news

10
the enduring problem

• Rosenstiel and Kovach Media contribute to
  fragmentation of public life. Press has lost its
  ability to point out for people the common ground
  in society.to be the forum for bringing the
  culture together

11

• Bennett problem not that news is liberal (or
  conservative) but that it is fragmentary,
  superficial, and source dependent
• Bennett news heavily determined by a process
  that gives great power to politicians and limited
  power to reporters

12

• BIAS toward government, politicians
• media often uncritical acceptance of their views
• 24/7 news is incomplete